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The Augusta News-Review (USPS 887 820) - July 14,1979 )*hS Wann? nder " VicePrelident for Research and Development P-nfnwXr Special Assistant to the Publisher Frank Bowman ' iiiiii iii i i iActing Advertising Manager Sales Representative NfrT Kathleen Coilins Administrative Assistant Mrs. Mary Gordon Administrative Assistant Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson • ■ • • • -Church Coordinator Ms Barbara Gordon Burke County Correspondent Mra Clara West McDuffie County Correspondent rvTunTL Sports Editor Mrs" teen Buchanan ii i i f i WFashion 4 Beauty. Editor Mrs. Marian Waring • •• • • • -Column lsl Michael Carr Chief Pho ographer Sterling Wimberly Photographer Roscoe Williams Photographer We cannot be responsible for unsolicited photos, manuscripts and other materials. Mailing Address Box 953 - Augusta, Ga. - Phone 722-4555 S»oond Class Postage Paid Augusta Ga. 30903 11 XX amkimamaw* JL— X PUBUMOMt INC. The blackside of Washington Does, indeed, history repeat itself? Just at the time we blacks needed Frederick Douglass most -a century ago when federal troops were withdrawn from the South and nightriders and the Ku Klux Klan were taking over - we were divided against him because he had taken a white wife. Now at a time when we need the NAACP most, we find it divided and engaged in a bitter internecine war in large part because Walter White back in 1950 divorced his black wife of 27 years and married Poppy Cannon, a white magazine editor. For 40 years, there has been little more relation between the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund than there is between lightning and a lightning bug, but it has been one of the best kept secrets ever. Although the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund had been divided into a loose confederation since 1939 with Walter White heading the parent organization and Thurgood Marshall leading the LDF, there was no real division in spirit until Walter married Poppy- Then all hell broke loose. In 1952 Thurgood moved his LDF into separate office quarters. Walter, who had devoted his whole life to the NAACP, sought to heal the breach by taking a year’s leave and joining a world tour tv forum. But when he returned, things were no better. Actually, they were worse. Roy Wilkins, his assistant, demanded a larger share in the management of the NAACP and the interlocking directorate of the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund was dissolved. Before the year was out Walter had died, perhaps of a broken heart. Ten years later, Thurgood became Solicitor General of the United States, headed towards the High Court in 1967. The NAACP struggled in its division to maintain its leadership position, but Martin Luther King’s SCLC, Whitney Letters to the editor Liked stories on Haines Institute Dear Editor: Please allow me to congratulate your paper for a task well done in your coverage of the Haines Alumni Association recently. Unfortunately, due to illness in my family, I was unable to attend the various events. However, I had close relatives and many close friends who did attend, and they are still talking about the glorious time enjoyed by all. I particularly enjoyed the writing of Mr. Waring and Mr. Horatio Lamar concerning the reunion, and I am more than sure, just as I was, many, many Appreciates festival coverage Dear Editor: Some 50,000 volunteers, spectators, and participants were a part of this year’s Augusta Black Festival. And on behalf of all of us here at the Augusta Arts and Cultural Association, I would like to thank you and the News-Review for your very important role in helping to make our festival successful through the coverage you gave this event. I’m sure that our partnership in projecting the black experience will make our people prouder and make all people Divide and conquer the NAACP By Sherman Briscoe. NNPA Young’s Urban League, Philip Randolph’s Institute, James Farmer’s CORE, Stokeley Carmichael and James Meredith’s SNCC were firmly in the saddle. Last year Bakke knocked us to our knees, Weber tried for the death blow, but failed, and now Jack Greensberg insists of continuing to pull the rug out from under Ben Hooks by collecting some funds intended for the NAACP, not the NAACP-LDF. Finally, the NAACP has voted to deny the Legal Defense Fund the use of the initials NAACP, and a legal battle is on. However, while the two are fighting, racial discrimination is running rampant in employment, housing, education, and in the electoral process. A BLACK VICTORY The quiet, firm voice of Congressman Parren J. Mitchell has prevailed again. A few days before President Carter took off for Japan, Mitchell called the White House and told the President that he and the Caucus, as well as civil rights organizations were opposed to Marshall Smith as interim acting Commissioner of Education. Carter agreed to withdraw his name. They opposed him because of his part in Christopher Jencks’ 1972 book; “Inequality” which concluded that equal educational opportunities would do very little to make adults more equal. Assistant Secretary of HEW Mary F. Berry has been named acting Commissioner for 30 days. By then, Education may be a separate Cabinet-level department. DIGGS AND TALMADGE The guessing here is that the House Ethics Committee will not act on Diggs’ case until the counterpart committee in the Senate acts on Herman, but at the moment it doesn’t look good for either of them. Hainites cherished the fond memories recalled by these two persons, as well as many others. I would also like to say I think it is a great idea for the churches to assist in creating more circulation for your paper, as I know the Blacks of Augusta and the surrounding territory are indeed fortunate to have a paper with quality such as the Augusta News-Review for our very own, and I sincerely hope your circulation will double many times over. A.E. Magruder 2420 Mt. Auburn Ave. more aware of the contributions we have made and continue to make in furthering the cultural development of the greatest country in the world. You have my personal thanks for the extra effort you and the News-Review family put forth to insure coverage of our major festival activities. Edward M. Mclntyre General Chairman & Organizer Augusta Arts & Cultural Assoc. Page 4 The current church-minister and News-Review circulation advancement campaign is in keeping with a long and solid tradition. Both in Augusta and around our nation, the Black Church and Black Press are two main cornerstones in our community. The Black Church had its start immediately following the War of Independence in 1781. One thinks of the great AME Church Movement. And locally of such Baptist institutions as Bryant in Savannah and Springfield in Augusta. Both the preacher and the editor have worked closely and cooperatively down through the history of this nation. First in the fight to abolish slavery, to win the Civil War, away out of the Reconstruction era with its bloody lynchings and disenfranchisements, and through the disappointment of Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1898 giving rise to a segregated society. The church and press locked arms through the Great Northern Migrations and the Great Depression when church finances slowed down Christian spirit and courage remained high. Days of glory were during World Wars I and 11. The church urged patriotism and the press plugged victory against the enemy abroad but achievement of first class citizenship and equality at home. HISTORIC AUGUSTA COOPERATION Our Augusta hometown has been fortunate in having the close church-press cooperation. Black History buffs will point to the Augusta Sentinel edited by Dr. C.T. Walker and Rev. Silas X. Floyd. The Georgia Baptist newspaper (official organ of the Negro Baptists of Georgia) reached national fame under the editorship of Rev. William J. White (often called Augusta’s W.E.B. Dußois). Both of these papers operated for many years. Well known is the saga on the threats to lynch Rev. White. He continued to publish until his death in 1915. ROLE OF WEEKLY REVIEW In the modern era we find the Augusta Weekly Review founded by Baptist clergyman MJ. Whitaker. Despite many handicaps he moved the paper forward from 1947 until he sold it to Attorney John Watkins during the mid-19605. Augusta owes a debt of gratitude to Rev. Whitaker. 1116 record also shows that the paper won three national awards for excellence during this period. Dear Editor: I’m a 27-year-old black man. I was incarcerated for a crime I never committed, and have been in prison 10 years going on 11. When I first came to prison I was only 17. And since my long stay has been so incummunicado I have lost contact with the outside worid. My time has been very much humdrum for me as well as desolate. I’d appreciate very much if some real concerned people &|(S Z)IL c\mßa 1979 BIASK CesoOCceS INC SUPPLY AND THE MAN irxAJr Wants ‘outside world 9 contact Going places Black church and press cornerstones By Phil Waring Since its 1971 birth the News-Review has developed into a solid all around news organ. There has been close working together with our churches. Here’s where you’ll find a church schedule, news stories about church activities and ministers and more. During the past year our Mrs. Geneva Yancy Gibson, daughter of one of our greatest clergymen, has given the paper an added push and expansion. From time to time Dr. C.S. Hamilton has written scholarly articles. CHURCH FEATURES One is proud to read and exhibit the News-Review any place to any one. It goes weekly to the Library of Congress, the White House, Congressional Black Caucus and the Spingarn-Moorland Black Press Archives at Howard University. This means that news of your happenings will be permanently enshrined for future historical use. Columbia University School of Journalism graduate students have used the paper for intern experience. The Southeastern Black Press Institue at the University of North Carolina has just funded use of a summer journalism intern program at the News-Review. An official of NNPA has previously praised the paper’s thrust to spur the research and writing of Black History. It is concerned about the plight of poor people and civil rights. The feature colurms by Vernon Jordan of the National Urban League, Dr. Benjamin Hooks, head of the NAACP; Sherman Briscoe of the National Newspapers Publishers Association; and others make our readers the “best informed about race relations” in the entire CSRA. SUBSCRIPTION PROJECT The paper has always maintained a “Letters to the Editor” column. In addition to the aforementioned news features, columns, etc., this section makes possible for the public to express itself. In these days when many segments of the media constantly kicks blacks and the poor in the teeth, there should be more use of this free and open opinion section. As church members get behind the expanded church-ministers and News-Review subscription campaign, it will mean greater expansion and greater black weekly news services for all. And the churches will also benefit from the project. Let’s all pitch in and help. would please write me. 1 don’t get any mail on a regular basis and receiving some letters from someone would keep me strong. I will send a picture of myself to anyone who would enjoy corresponding with me. Harry James Snow D 2179 Macon Correctional Center C-l P.O. Box 5022 Macon, Georgia 31208 Walking with dignity & I|gi Zambia’s crisis erodes Zimbabwe sanctions. A major hole will be blown in the Western policy of sanctions against Zimbabwe and it will be done by their next door neighbor, Zambia. Signs are growing that Zimbia’s President Kaunda, who last October was forced to reopen his southern rail route through Zimbabwe Rhodesia to import essential goods and export Zambian copper, soon will have to ask Prime Minister Muzorewa to reopen the road links as well. The Zambian economy reportedly is in a very serious state and must import upwards of 200,000 tons of maize (com to y’all) via the southern rail route in the next few months if a food crisis in Zambia is to be avoided. CHRISTIAN COMPASSION? At present, only about 4,000 tons of traffic is crossing the Victoria Falls bridge from the south each day. The main reason for the holdup is that it apparently is taking the Zambians about sixty days to turn round rail wagons and send them back south instead of the six days that it should take. Bishop Muzorewa, the new Rhodesian black leader, is being advised by at least some of his advisers to adopt a hard line with President Kaunda and demand a “quid pro quo” in the form of a withdrawal of support by Zambia from the Patriotic Front guerrilla forces based in Zambia and loyal to Joshua Nkomo. WILL BE PRAGMATIC The Methodist Bishop is expected to tell Zambia’s President Kaunda that Zimbabwe Rhodesia can hardly be expected to feed Zambia while guerrillas based inside Zambia launch attacks against his country; and even attack the railways bringing vitally needed supplies to Zambia. Zimbabwe officials believe that the econonic and food situation in Zambia is deterioriating so rapidly that the Zambian President soon will be Tobe equal ■ Health debate heats up emon E. Jordan ■■■■!■ All the cards are now on the table in the national debate over what kind of federal health program we’ll have. The press has, as usual, personalized the health debate as being a Kennedy vs. Carter struggle for leadership. But this issue is too important to become a political football. The nation is spending enormous amounts for a health care system that is not a system at all. It doesn’t serve all people equally, and it is not responsive to the health needs of the nation. For over seventy years, there has been serious thought given to establishing a national health system. Now we appear to be entering the decisive stage in which the nature of that new system will be decided. The President’s plan represents a step forward, but we need more than a step. It proposes a new federal insurance system, called Healthcare, that would provide insurance against catastrophic medical costs, improving coverage for low income families and the aged, help local hospital systems, provide preventive care for mothers and infants and expand current health coverage of working people. Whatever the short term benefits of such a plan, it would prevent establishments of a unified, manageable and cost-effective national health program. It would create a split-level health care system, with one level for most Americans, and a second, inferior level for the poor, the near-poor, and the aged. Those groups would be enrolled in Healthcare. They’d be treated by doctors who agree to charge only fees the government would reimburse. The result would be similar to the experience of today’s medicaid program. Most doctors refuse to see medicaid patients, while those who do include many who see federal payments as a profitable reward for assembly-line health treatment. In New York City, this has resulted in poor people forced onto public hospital emergency and clinic facilities, overloading them. The forced closing of inner city hospitals then leaves the poor with no place to go for treatment. Deadline Wednesdays Zambia’s crisis hurting By Al Irby forced to make a pragmatic choice between continued support for Nkomo and his guerrillas and food for his killers. Political experts in Salisbury believe that President Carter knows that not much time remains for the economic sanctions weapon to be used against Rhodesia effectively. They point out that even if the United States Congress does support Mr. Carter’s stance, the British Parliament is most unlikely to do the same in the long span. DEFEATED LABOR PARTY It is felt to be inconceivable for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to ask the British House of Commons next November to reimpose econonic sanctions, which will lapse automatically every November. Analysts, in both Europe and the United States, are saying that President Carter is using the sanctions weapon while it still exists to try to exert last-minute pressure on Bishop Muzorewa to renege on parts of the 1979 Constitution and make changes to it. Many Europeans stress that the American government has failed to specify precisely what it expects Bishop Muzorewa to do. In other words, says one official, there is a great possibility that if he was to make concessionary changes in line with the Carter administration’s criticism, he still would have no guarantee at all that Mr. Carter would then regard these changes as sufficient. Officials say this underlines the likelihood that the United States President is more concerned with Nigeria’s oil and his home political fences than with the rights and wrongs of the Zimbabwean Constitution. Bishop Muzorewa’s political path is by no means paved with roses. The little Bishop has indicated that some redistribution of land to black farmers is a top priority. Dennis Norman, president of the National i j Farmer’s Union, has urged the Prime Minister to move quickly with plans to open state-owned land to black people to prevent a “land grab.” Freezing this two-class health system into permanence is no reform. The Administration plan will result in improved access to health care for today’s neglected poor, but it won’t improve the quality of the care they get and it will be a barrier to developing a unitary health system that provides equal treatment for the poor. Another barrier to developing such a system is insuring against catastrophic illness costs. Once middle class Americans have such insurance, political pressure for far-reaching changes in the health care system will vanish. At that, the Administration’s catastrophic insurance won’t go into effect until a family has spent $2,500 on health care - far too high for the average working family. So while there’s plenty to approve in the Administration plan it just doesn’t go far enough to warrant support. The alternative, popularly labelled the Kennedy Plan, faces an uphill fight. But it also suggests the kindof health system the nation should have. Its basic principles are that, unlike the present system, there should be a national health program that is progressively financed, universal in coverage, and capable of controlling costs. There would be no separate program for the poor - everyone would be enrolled in the same system. The details of that plan also leave something to be desired, but it would take us much closer to the day when the human right to health care is not determined by the size of a person’s paycheck. Neglected by the press is the most far-reaching health plan of all, embodied in Congressman Dellum’s National Health Service Act. That would assure total health care services to all, and it remains the standards against which both the Kennedy and Carter proposals must be measured. National health insurance is an idea whose time has come. The big question, is whether we’ll have a version that creates an equitable system for all,or whether we’ll have a two-tier health system that leaves the poor at a disadvantage.